New Large Maps

November 28, 2010, 23:01

Hi. I've been playing CTP off and on for since the original CTP was released. I've posted a few times in this community, but never been very active. The thing I always liked about CTP over CIV is that I always thought it had more depth. I've only purchased CIV up to v3. I tried a friends copy of CIV 4, but didn't like. One of the things I really didn't like, was the smaller maps.

So, I came back to CTP, using the AE edition and made larger maps. I've got up to 500x1000 working, and this is enough for me. I also edited the government file to increase the number of max cities. I did this by just adding a 0 to the end of each. Still needs testing and tweaking.

However, in testing, I realized that technology is coming way to fast, while at 410BC, I'm researching Electricity. I will have to go back and try a normal sized map to see if this normal or not, but looking at the tech tree, it may not be far off.

I have played AOM before, and for the most part I liked it. I wasn't really a huge fan of the Dark Ages and all of the Barbarians, but the additional tech, units, improvments really gave it a great amount of depth.

I would like to start porting these features from AOM into the AE edition that I'm using now, as I like the new improvements that have been made there. However, in looking at the AOM files, I see there are a lot SLC files. I'm wondering if I'll have to port those over also, or not. Does anyone know? Is this going to be a lot larger project than I'm thinking?

However, in testing, I realized that technology is coming way to fast, while at 410BC, I'm researching Electricity. I will have to go back and try a normal sized map to see if this normal or not, but looking at the tech tree, it may not be far off.

If you are increasing the allowable number of cities by 10x, then you are also gaining a lot more science points per turn if you are building/conquering those cities. You will need to make an adjustment to tech costs (more expensive) to slow down the science.

I would like to start porting these features from AOM into the AE edition that I'm using now, as I like the new improvements that have been made there. However, in looking at the AOM files, I see there are a lot SLC files. I'm wondering if I'll have to port those over also, or not. Does anyone know? Is this going to be a lot larger project than I'm thinking?

If all you are doing is increasing map size, this should not have an effect on AOM or AE. Same with tech costs...you just need to make sure you are changing the right files. AOM files are a mess because Stan didn't remove old files.

Yes, let's be optimistic until we have reason to be otherwise...No, let's be pessimistic until we are forced to do otherwise...Maybe, let's be balanced until we are convinced to do otherwise. -- DrSpike, Skanky Burns, Shogun Gunner
...aisdhieort...dticcok...

Comment

im very interested in large maps of the 400 by 400 tile size and i would like to know the best way to get them to run on my computer? when looking for cool ctp2 maps i came across a japan and korea map it was about 200 by 200 tiles in size and i would love to know if anyone can try to enlage this into a 400 by 400 tile map. i was trying to create a scenario based on the years from 1860 to 1910 starting in 1860 when the russians entered the map and ending in 1910 when the koreans became part of the japanese empire i felt the scenario couls be extended to 1930 when the japanese began a campaign against the chinese portion of the map but during world war 2 in 1940 only 2 empires would be on the map japan and russia i felt that korea could be a ally of japan in order to drag out the scenario for a few more turns and korea could just conquer the manchurian portion of china on the map and call it self empire of manchukuo then in the 1940's wed have 3 empires on the map the chinese part of the map was very small anyways. i only wanted a japan korea map at 400 by 400 tiles becasue then all of the korean city names that are bult in to the city name index of korea could be listed i was even willing to build all of the citys everyone would have had by world war 2 and now aday times so to make all 4 civilizations powerful but like you siad with so many cities tech kept coming very fast and then while playing as the japanese the entiire empire of russia fell in one turn becasue of a hugh rebellion and became barbarian i felt that was very odd i never seen that before but tech kept coming very rapidly for everybody casue everyone controled a hugh swath of territory even the koreans were gigantic but i still would love to see a 400 by 400 tile version of the map just to test out how a largest version of korea would be. and i will take advice on how to get this map to run on my computer after someone uploads a work of art like that.

Comment

Hi! I am not at all an expert in map creation -- actually I never did it myself -- but here is what I am able to tell:
* There is a utility, BMP2CTP, for converting images to CTP/CTP2-mapfiles. This allows you to take any scan from an atlas or whatever map you may grab from the internet and to produce a scenario map based upon that image. You basically need to make sure that the terrain on the image matches certain colors specified for the terrain types that are available in the game.
* You will find instructions here and here.
* AFAIK it is not possible to "extract" portions of existing "in-game"/textfile-maps. The description of BMP2CTP talks about an "enormous EarthMap OmniGod created", large enough to extract any desired portion of the world. This must be an image version of his worldmap, but I think it's not contained in the downloads on Apolyton and unfortunately I couldn't find such a file on my pc as well. Probably somóne else reading this could help out?

Comment

martin that omnigod's world map is 21600 by 10800 in size. im not even sure if this map could be played in its entire size and what exactly does ressolution to 2 kilometers mean?

Resolution 2 kilometers mean that a pixel on this big bmp corresponds to a square of 2 times 2 kilometers. This map is not intended to be played, but it can be used to cut out smaller portions like Great Britain for instance.

And of course you can downsize it to whatever size below.

One thing to note is that the map does not encode rivers and OmniGod did not figure out how to do it with such an image. So he marked the rivers with dead tiles which have to be converted to rivers with the scenario editor.

-Martin

Civ2 military advisor: "No complaints, Sir!"

Comment

hey oliviasdad id like you to teach me how to increarse the maximum number of alouable cities. im working on a few real world maps i found on this aployton website and this is for callto power 2. my scenarios will be set around the dutch empire at varius locations and times. and on most maps i found were uploaded by omni god and there only 210 x210 tiles in size yet when i try to colonize all the maps with the historic nation states i tend to see most countries advancing too fast in tech i try to get rid of tech for every one but they always seem to re-discover the techs after another thousand years.

these are some dutch nations im interested in
name.....................best map
-------------------------------------
New Netherland........ontario-New york....or as i call it (the eastern great lakes)
Dutch east indies......South east asia
Cape colony.............Africa
The Netherlands........Europe

all these maps are gigantic 210x210 maps but i still would like to use oliviasdad's exspertise on how to increse maximum alouable cities. preferablly to were 50 cities is the maximum or something like that becasue i was playing as the ottoman empire on the africa map and i fitted in 20 cites already 11 of which where for greece and i noticed a error on the map a tiny portion of greece was missing and on that portion was sparta and two other cities. but the map only went as far north as spart so greece as a playable country on this map would been interesting but they apear in the 1830's and reach maximum exspansion after taking the dodecanese islands in 1947 and on africa map thos islands are the cities of Rhodes and kos.

also is there anyway to re-place some civilizations with more important civilizations?

casue i dont find Nicaragua very apealing as a playable country. and my only map that has them is north america im not sure how big theyd be on it but also Cuba was there and they be just as small im also happy that jamaica was removed from the game they were even more un-interesting. id like to see a italy as a playable country. also sweden as a playable country , i know theres a roman empire but theres a precedent for two countries in same spot look at native americans they lived in same land as americans and canadiens.

Comment

For modding the game look into the text files, you have government.txt where you can change the number of cities a government allows, you have the civilisation.txt that allows you to change the number of civilization. If you want to modify the names, check out civ_str.txt.

By the way, we have some modding info on this web site.

-Martin

Civ2 military advisor: "No complaints, Sir!"

Comment

ok thanks for the tips im not really trying to make a total mod change. i really like the game they way it is like how the tech tree looks and every thing im just trying to increase the number of maximum cities. but id need help with this becasue i need to know how many cities a largest civ on particular maps were but certainly on these gigantic maps i seen omni god post that the original game rules were not alouing the empire to function like it was in real life. also changing civ names is apealing to me but id rather just use whats in the game till i solve the maximum city problem first

Comment

ok i have looked into the changing names thing and thats nice to know but id like for you to tell me how to change the maximum number of cities thing now.
i just got done doubling the max citys for all government types im wondering if i changing any of the other statistics would help in anyway with creating large empires?

Last edited by jonathan1980; September 23, 2011, 19:36.
Reason: post was too long